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Sunday, May 10, 2015

Wargames Factory: Plastic AWI Continental Infantry Reviewed!

Today, we will take a closer look at the plastic American War of Independence Continental Infantry made by Wargames Factory. This boxed set is one of five plastic American War of Independence boxed sets which have been released or will be released in due course. At the moment the Continental Infantry, British Infantry, Woodland Indians and American Militia boxed sets have already been released. The last boxed set isn't previewed yet but is most likely to be some useful plastic artillery or cavalry.

The Contintal Infantry boxed set contains 30 hard-plastic miniatures representing George Washington’s Continental army during the American War of Independence. The gaited trousers and long tailed regimental coat are indicative of the appearance George Washington aimed to achieve for his field army. This kit offers several options of headgear including cocked hats, round hats, the fur crested caps of George Washington’s Lifeguard, and helmets. Let's take a look at all the aspect of this nice and useful boxed set!

The box

The Continental Infantry miniatures come is a sturdy cartonboard box decorated with some very nice artwork depicting the resilient blue firing line on the battlefield. For those who remember the very first releases of Wargames Factory still under management of Tony Reid, will notice that the boxing and artwork have improved lots. The back of the cartonboard shows the nicely painted and assembled miniatures along with a short blurb about the content. These pictures offer a great painting guide for painting the uniform of the line and light infantry. If you are wondering, come on skip reviewing that cartonboard box! You will be most pleased that we now will take a look at the shiny hard-plastic content!

The content

The Continental Infantry boxed set contains two infantry sprues along with one command sprue. These sprues allow you to assemble 24 line infantry models along with a six-men strong command unit including officers, musicians and flagbearers. The best part is that all of the parts are interchangeable with the other American War of Independence kits creating highly customizable options for historical and non-fiction usage.

Each infantry sprue contains enough parts to make 12 hard-plastic miniatures in a nice variety of firing, loading and at-ready body poses. Each of these sprues contains the several options of headgear including cocked hats, round hats, the fur crested caps of George Washington’s Lifeguard, and helmets. You're quite spoiled by this choice of headgear so you can field these highly-detailled miniatures as either stout line infantry, light infantry or as lifeguard.

I have taken the above picture of the entire infantry sprue showing you all the different options. You may noticed the lettering on the sprue which allows you to easily find the right parts for each body and head type on the sprue! Next to this I have also taken the following pictures showing the body types and some of the weapon and head options.

The boxed set also contains one command sprue containing enough parts to assemble a six-man strong command element. This command element consists out of officers, flagbearers and musician (flute and drum). The officer miniatures can be assembled carrying pistols or swords. The command sprue also contains lots of loose muskets which can easily be used as an obejective or to decorate your scenery.

As always the boxed set also contains one sprue with square plastic bases allowing you to quickly assemble and base your miniatures. The command sprue also contains extra plastic bases so you can just base all 30 miniatures of the set.

The assembly

The assembly of these hard-plastic miniatures is quite straight forward as each part is numbered and lettered. The only disadvantage of this system is that each miniature can only be assembled in one specific pose. The boxed set contains a leaflet showing the different poses which can be assembled on the infantry sprue and the command sprue.

After carefully removing all the parts and sorting them according to the leaflet, I have managed to assemble the following miniatures which are the entire content minus two light infantry miniatures. The assembling of the miniatures was easy as all parts fitted wel and the hard-plastic used took the plastic glue very well (I use the Revell Modeling glue which comes with a very fine metal nozzle).

To be honest I was quite reluctant to begin the assembling of the miniatures as there were so many parts. But when started I flew through the boxed set only leaving a trail of plastic sprue bits scattered around the living room! I even managed to assemble the entire boxed set in one evening while enjoying some television. Here's the result of one evening's work while watching the suitable themed movie The Patriot.

Painted

Grabbed some pictures from the Wargames Factory website to show the painted miniatures. As you can see these look stunning with all the details showing through nicely. I especially like the details on the command miniatures.

The conclusion

As you have read during the review, these miniatures certainly won't disappoint you in both quality and price. This Continental Infantry boxed set offers you 30 highly-detailled miniatures and bases for a price of only £14.63. These miniatures are readily available through Wargames Factory or Wayland Games, so if you're looking to repel some British troops grab some boxed sets as you won't regret the purchase!